Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff are currently employed at the Online Capability Centre.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Following the announcement by the Prime Minister of the new tech partnership to stop the boats on 6 August 2023, the Home Office and National Crime Agency (NCA) have strengthened the voluntary partnership with social media companies, Meta, YouTube, X/Twitter, to accelerate action to tackle people smuggling content online. We continue to explore further options, such as a ‘hackathon’ model to develop our innovative approach to break the business model of people smugglers advertising their services online.
To date we have successfully removed 98% of content flagged to social media companies, with over 9000 posts, pages and accounts removed since November 2021.
The Online Communications Centre (previously known as the Online Capability Centre) has been operational since October 2023 and with expertise in policy, investigations and intelligence and with access to a range of niche capabilities in tackling the online threat. We cannot comment on individual numbers of officers in classified roles.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure that all staff employed on the Bibby Stockholm (a) by his Department and (b) through sub-contracts are paid at least the national minimum wage.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
All staff are paid at a minimum of the National Living Wage. No accommodation offset is applied to the rate of pay for staff who reside on the Bibby Stockholm.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in (a) England, (b) the North West, (c) Lancashire and (d) Preston have been (i) awarded and (ii) denied compensation from the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Information on the number of Windrush Compensation Scheme claims that have received a compensation payment and that have received a zero entitlement decision is published as part of the Transparency Data release. The latest published data, covering the period up to the end of February 2024, is available here: Windrush Compensation Scheme data: February 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Windrush Compensation Scheme does not publish regional data about compensation awards and zero-entitlement decisions.
A zero entitlement claim is one where the person making the claim meets the eligibility criteria under the scheme rules, but is not entitled to any compensation as we have not been able to identify any losses or impacts suffered as a result of an inability to demonstrate lawful status.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish a revised impact assessment for Electronic Travel Authorisation to include an assessment of the impact of that scheme on airside transit passengers.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Electronic Travel Authorisations deliver important security benefits. A blanket exemption to the ETA requirement for passengers transiting airside would fundamentally undermine the rationale of the scheme by creating a permission free route of travel into the UK which would be open to abuse.
We will keep our position under review to monitor the impact on transit as the scheme is rolled out.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2024 to Question 14458 on Asylum: hotels, how many asylum seekers are being housed in UK hotel accommodation by his Department as of 17 April 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office has been clear that the use of hotels is a temporary and necessary measure to ensure we meet our statutory obligation to accommodate destitute asylum seekers. We have already made significant progress by no longer using 100 hotels for asylum seekers on 31 March 2024. A total of 150 hotels will no longer be used for accommodating asylum seekers by the beginning of May, reducing the strain on local communities.
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Data is published on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Hong Kong residents born before 1997 have been granted British National (Overseas) visas under exceptional circumstances.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
All applications are determined on a case-by-case basis depending on their individual circumstances.
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of applications that have been granted a British National (Overseas) visa specifically under exceptional circumstances.
The Home Office releases data on the BN(O) route as part of the quarterly migration statistics which can be found at the following link: Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data his Department holds on the number and proportion of berths on the Bibby Stockholm that are reserved for staff to live on board; and whether the accommodation offset is applied to the pay of any staff being paid at the level of the national minimum wage.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
All staff are paid at a minimum of the National Living Wage. No accommodation offset is applied to the rate of pay for staff who reside on the Bibby Stockholm.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Passport Office has taken to make travellers aware of the need to renew their passport if they intend to travel 10 years following the issue date.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Foreign travel advice, including passport validity and other entry requirements, is delivered by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
His Majesty’s Passport Office promote this advice through social media, and by sending targeted text message (SMS) reminders where a passport is over 9 years and 8 months, and the contact details are held from the related passport application. These text messages specifically reference the passport validity rules for travel to Europe.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the correspondence of 12 March 2024 from Professor Brian Bell, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the timescales given for the Migration Advisory Committee's review of the graduate route on the quality and quantity of evidence that the Committee can use to answer the questions included in the commissioning letter.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
It is important that we provide certainty on this issue in a timely manner, which is why we asked the MAC to carry out a rapid review. We will consider the evidence put forward by the MAC very closely.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Professor Brian Bell's letter, published by his Department on 12 March 2024, what assessment he has made of Migration Advisory Committee's concerns on the timescales for its review of the Graduate route.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
It is important that we provide certainty on this issue in a timely manner, which is why we asked the MAC to carry out a rapid review. We will consider the evidence put forward by the MAC very closely.